


The Corps Doesn't Care How Bad Your Acne Is

by Lalaen



Series: Canon is as Canon Does feat. The Hijinks of 104th Training Division [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Awkwardness, Coming of Age, Gay Panic, M/M, Puberty, or lack thereof
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-04 14:41:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3071888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lalaen/pseuds/Lalaen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Puberty sucks. Reiner Braun spends much of his wondering what's so exciting about girls, anyways?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Corps Doesn't Care How Bad Your Acne Is

For the others, this would be a baptism of fire; but for Reiner and Bertholdt life at the training corps camp was better than any they'd ever had. Admittedly, they were not as well fed, but Reiner considered this a pretty good trade for not having to endure daily abuse. He'd had the pleasure of watching Bertl flourish in this place where he didn't have to live in fear; watched those sallow cheeks fill out and the thin boy that used to flinch and tremble every time someone so much as looked his way begin to incrimentally relax. He was frequently teased by others in their regiment for being so nervous; but Reiner had to hold back a laugh. They didn't have a clue. 

Not that Reiner really let anyone tease his best friend. He made no secret of how protective he was; and since he was already the biggest of the boys by far no one dared to cross him.

Puberty had been the real hard road. Reiner was the kind of guy who could play anything off, but it didn't mean he was comfortable with his dick getting hard when his pants so much as moved the wrong way. At least he wasn't the only one - almost every guy had an embarrassing boner story he wouldn't tell (though he'd so far managed to shield Bertl from public humiliation, and therefore dropping dead of shame). Jaeger was well known for popping one while practicing hand to hand, and Springer never even bothered trying to hide the morning wood that he seemed to have a strange sense of pride about. Who could forget the time Shadis had ordered Arlert to take his jacket out of his lap immediately; and Kirstein had enough stories for every day of the damn week. 

After lights out in the boys' barracks, talk was inevitably of the girls. Braus was getting pretty big tits, huh? Carolina's lips would look so nice around a cock. Every boy got in on the bragging about who'd gotten the closest to peeking in the shower room or who'd fallen against one of the girls and felt the brief squish of a developing boob. Reiner was a loudmouth and of course joined in with lewd comments of his own; but he found himself puzzled when Franz told them all about how Hannah had let him put a hand up her top. The other guys were wide eyed and leaning forwards, or trying to hide a blush. 

He was bored. He was really bored. 

His charisma and charm meant he had no trouble at all stealing a kiss from one of the girls behind supply shed B. He expected to be nursing a stiffy and limping back to the barracks; but instead came away with only the opinion that girls smelled kind of nice. 

Reiner did not so much as mention the kiss to the rest of the barracks, though he didn't usually waste opportunities to boast. He wasn't sure why. 

He was also beginning to suspect that best friends usually did not kiss on the mouth. He certainly wasn't about to look like an idiot by asking; that was not his style. However, it seemed that no one else had really even thought about it. He remembered the first time he'd kissed Bertl. He'd been seven, and it'd felt like the most natural thing in the world. Since that time it'd been nearly habit to stop tears and heal bruises with kisses that'd always stopped Bertholdt's crying in its tracks. 

Puberty had been very good to Reiner. He'd had nights with growing pains bad enough to bring involuntary tears to his eyes, and they left stretch marks on shoulders that seemed to get broader all at once. Though he did get more hair on his body, for him this meant 'Any at all'; and it was so blond that in most places you had to be almost an inch away to even see it. His voice cracked and his balls hurt and he could smell himself, sure, but he was certainly self confident enough to notice himself turning from a chubby and plain child into an attractive and very large young man. The fat melted from his face and he liked what he saw there. 

His dick was getting pretty big too. 

On the other hand, the whole thing had been pretty hard on poor Bertl. He'd been an adorable kid - that perpetually concerned expression on his sweet heart-shaped face, long lashes hiding his downcast gaze. The last year had taken him from a willowy five foot five to a lanky and confused six foot four. He'd always been bony, but his rapid growth had destroyed his ability to keep weight on; especially on a spare military diet. His face had gotten longer and thinner like the rest of him. When he slept next to Reiner at night it wasn't the intermingled scent of the two of them (not allowed to shower until tomorrow morning) that was the problem. Bertholdt's legs had become really hairy and it was honestly almost too itchy to stand, especially when he moved around so much at night. 

Maybe best friends didn't usually cuddle close for bed either. Reiner was not quite sure he'd be able to turn it away if he tried - they'd slept within arm's reach ever since he could remember. Maybe that was it. Maybe it was just that no one understood them. No one had suffered through what they had. If the others had grown up that way surely they too would sleep close, need the reassurance of another presence. No one could ever understand. 

When Reiner awoke to harsh breath and tiny muffled groans of pain, the pitch blackness of the barracks didn't matter. He thoughtlessly slid a hand across the cool space between them and brushed his fingertips over what felt like Bertl's lower back; letting his friend know he was awake. "Your legs?" He breathed as he edged right up to the thin strip of wood seperating them, and by the time he heard the rustle of emphatic nodding his hand had already quested to find Bertholdt's own clamped desperately on his thigh. Reiner pushed himself over the small barrier, his naked chest sticking a little to his friend's slightly sweaty back. He found himself habitually kissing the back of Bertl's neck, rubbing the muscles in the vain hope it would do something. He understood plenty from the terrible aching he still got in his shoulders, but he also knew that this boy was no stranger to pain and no matter what others might think due to his meek disposition, no weakling. These pains were bad. Sometimes the rubbing seemed to help, and saved him being up all night. 

Reiner lay there with his lips to the back of Bertl's neck and his chest pressed against slender and trembling muscle; and to his mild embarrassment he found himself slightly hard. He tried to tell himself it was probably a combination of a little friction and needing to piss, but instead found himself noticing that the smell of Bertl's slightly sweaty skin was rather appealing. In fact, he rather preferred it to the soft and inoffensive scent of Lena, the girl he'd kissed behind the shed. That seemed a little strange. 

Reiner had seen Bertl in the shower once with a hard cock. He'd faced the corner as he fumbled for the cold water tap, red to his shoulders and looking like he might drop dead from shame. The sight had inexplicably made Reiner's cheeks flame. It was shockingly hard to look respectfully away like he knew he should, and he found himself lowering the temperature of his own shower as a preventative measure. 

It was not long after that - not long enough for the incident to have faded at all in his mind - when Reiner lay awake in bed. He was usually a sound sleeper, but tonight it eluded him long after lights out. With eyes closed he could identify the sounds of the boys' barracks he was so accustomed to; Connie's loud snoring, Eren's nonsensical mumbling from the bunk below, Bertholdt's restless and often destructive movement. Reiner expected to be kicked any time now. 

Actually... It didn't sound like Bertl was moving that much, which was really abnormal unless Reiner fell asleep bear hugging him and therefore kept him mostly pinned in place. Reiner was about to whisper to his best friend to see if he too lay awake, but froze when he realized that there were in fact sounds coming from the bed next to him. They weren't the sounds of Bertl's usually violent slumber. The wet, heavy sounds of his breathing and the quiet shuffling of sheets was an unmistakable indication of something that certainly was not sleep. This too was a very usual nighttime sound, but one Reiner had certainly never heard from his bed friend's bed. 

Completely unbidden, Reiner found himself imagining in vivid detail - he could remember all too well just how that slender cock had looked, he knew just how one graceful hand would hold it so shyly and hesitantly, how a thumb must have brushed the head to produce a tiny muffled gasp. The surge of arousal in Reiner's gut was so sudden that he almost gasped himself; but he was frozen in place. The knowledge that Bertl would certainly stop if he made the slightest indication of being awake was nearly instinct. The next urge came just as suddenly and unstoppably. 

Reiner wanted - needed - to look after him just as he always had. The realization of his best friend's cautious fear brought that need to the surface regardless of how ridiculous it was. Reiner latched on to that as the reason for his unnatural interest, but the very next moment found himself rolling his eyes at his own stupidity. 

That wouldn't have made his fucking dick hard. 

He pressed his face into the pillow in an attempt to cool his burning cheeks. He could absolutely not deny how much he wanted not even to help but just to watch, for no other damn reason than that it was out of control hot. Trying very hard not to be distracted by any other noises, he took a moment to ponder exactly what that meant. 

He was attracted to Bertholdt. His best friend, and unarguably male. It was actually becoming more and more difficult to think about anything other than pinning him down and fucking him into the mattress, something he knew for sure he'd never more than briefly considered doing to a single woman in the corps. Or ever.

That... Explained an awful lot, actually.

**Author's Note:**

> im apologizing for this


End file.
